At least four of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees have deflected confirmation hearing questions about whether they’d refuse to take illegal orders from the president, raising concern from Democratic lawmakers.
“The failure to respond directly and unequivocally is, in some ways, disqualifying,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NOTUS on Thursday.
Senators asked Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth at their respective hearings about how they would respond if they received an illegal order from Trump. None of them explicitly answered, instead saying that they’ve previously followed the law or that they don’t believe Trump would issue an illegal order.